Oberheim Eclipse
By
Mark-k4.Lz, in Keyboards & MIDI
Overall Rating
Sound Quality
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Reliability/Durability
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General Comments
I bought this keyboard recently because I wanted to move to an 88 note keyboard, and this seemed like too good a deal to pass up. Playing multiple keyboards, bass and guitar and building a recording setup, I have a lot of spending priorities, which makes it difficult for me to allocate huge sums of cash to one keyboard. Of course, cheaper isn't necessarily better, so I was a little worried this would be crap when I bought it. In this regard I was pleasantly surprised. I know there are a lot of these being sold now at prices in the $550-$600 range (I think they were discontinued), but nobody seems to know about them. When I bought mine (over the internet) I had never actually played one, and the only person I knew that owned one was Merl Saunders. I asked him how he liked his, and he was very nice in telling me about its features and giving me his (positive) impression of it before I bought it. So I'm trying to pass on the favor with this review, to let people who also like the price/feature combination but don't know anything about the board. In absolute terms of how it ranks in the competition of 88 key digital pianos, I would place it near (but not at) the bottom. In relative terms, accounting for its price, I think its near the top (of course this depends on how much a dollar is worth to you. If it's the record label's nickel, then buy something nicer. If you are going to be paying for this and your rent with a series $100/night gigs, definitely consider this before you drop 2 grand on some board that will be worth about the same as this one in 3-4 years...!)